Taking the example of the Mediterranean, to a lesser extent European, of the countries participating in the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation in Cancer and Nutrition) cohort study, it has been shown that adherence to the Mediterranean diet contributes to increasing life expectancy. However, the ability of individual components of the Mediterranean diet to reduce mortality has not yet been sufficiently studied.

The EPIC study brought together 23 research centers in 10 European countries. The aim of the study, based on the Greek segment of the EPIC study, was to determine the role of the individual components of the Mediterranean diet in establishing the feedback between strict dietary compliance and all-cause mortality. The study involved 23,349 male and female patients with no history of cancer, coronary artery disease and diabetes mellitus, with documented survival status until June 2008 and the availability of comprehensive information on the foods consumed. Mortality was considered the main outcome for all reasons.

The average follow-up period for study participants was 8.5 years. Among 12694 participants with scores on the Mediterranean diet 0-4, 652 deaths were recorded, and among 10655 participants with scores of more than 5, 423 deaths were recorded. Strong adherence to the diet resulted in a statistically significant reduction in overall mortality. The study established the contribution of certain components of the Mediterranean diet to the increase in life expectancy: moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks - 23.5%, low consumption of meat and meat products - 16.6%, consumption vegetables in large quantities - 16.2%, consumption of fruit and nuts in large quantities - 16.2%, the predominance of monounsaturated fatty acids (in particular, olive oil) over saturated acids - 10, 6%, the use of legumes - 9.7%. The use of a large amount of cereals and a small amount of dairy products was of minimal importance, while the consumption of large quantities of fish and seafood resulted in a slight increase in mortality.

Thus, the main components of the Mediterranean diet, namely: the moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks, the restriction of meat and meat products, the use of vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil and legumes in large quantities contributed a drop in mortality. An insignificant role was played by dairy products and cereals, probably due to the heterogeneity of this category of products having various health effects, as well as of fish and seafood, whose consumption was low in this area. patient population.